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COPYRIGHTED 1895, BY MRS. JULIA MILLS DUNN. 
MOLINE, ILLINOIS. 




TO THE DAUGHTERS AND SONS OF THE 

AMERICAN REVOLUTION, 

DESCENDANTS OF THOSE HEROES 

WHOSE FORTITUDE AND PATRIOTISM, 

UNPARALLELED IN 

HISTORY, 

HAVE MADE THESE DAYS SACRED, 

THESE PAGES ARE 

DEDICATED. 



[HE D11Y8 WE CELEBRATE 



7 January, 1781. 

:©attle of dowpens. 

3NE of the most brilliant victories of 
the Revolution. Cornwallis had 
ispatched Colonel Tarleton with his 
amous cavalry legion to destroy the 
.-atriot forces under General Morgan, 
'r drive them out of the State. The 
Americans, learning of Tarleton's ap- 
>roach, took up a favorable position at 
I grazing ground known as the Cow- 
)ens, where they were attacked by the 
British. At the crisis of the battle, 
Colonel William Washington made a 
■urious charge and scattered the British 
dragoons. The rout was complete ; 
:he victory decisive. There never was 
a victory more thorough. 



The Days We Celebrate. 



1 



22 February, 1732. 

Masbington'e :Birtb£)ais. 

THE greatest patriot of whom we 
know anything, whose life and 
deeds were to so profoundly affect the 
history, not only of his own country, but 
the history of civilization and the world, 
was born in Westmoreland County, 
Virginia. Congress has most appropri- 
ately made his birthday a national holi- 
day, and the whole world does homage 
to his memory. 

19 April, 1775 

:©attle of Xcjington, 

THE first outbreak of the Revolution. 
When the patriots became aware 
that it was the intention of General 
Gage to subdue them by force of arms, 
they secretly carried arms and amuni- 
tion and stored them at Concord. Gage 
dispatched eight hundred men to de- 
stroy it, and also capture Samuel Adams 
and John Hancock, two bold patriots 
who were supposed to be hidden at 
Lexington or Concord. 



The Days We Celebrate. 5 

In the darkness of the night, Paul 
Revere and William Dawes rode with 
all possible speed to Lexington, alarm- 
ing the settlers and villagers to "be up 
and to arm "; and when the British regi- 
ment, under Colonel Smith and Major 
Pitcairn, reached the place, they found 
a small but rapidly augmenting body of 
patriots ready to receive them. The 
patriots lost, in killed and wounded, 
eighty-three, and the British two hun- 
dred and seventy-three. 

" Scarcely a man is now alive 
Who remembers that famous day and year." 

— Longfello7v in '' Paul Revere s Ride" 

' ' Here once the embattled farmers stood 
And fired the shot heard round the world." 

— Emerson. 

10 May, 1775. 

Surrender ct 3fort XTiconDeroga. 

I^ORT Ticonderoga had been equipped 
i and fortified by the British at an 
expense of forty millions of dollars. 

Ethan Allen, of Vermont, a daring 
and eccentric patriot, at the head of 
eighty-three men rowed across Lake 



6 The Days We Celebrate. 

Champlain in the darkness of the nighty 
and demanded the surrender of the fort. 

" By whose authority ? " demanded 
the astonished commandant, Delaplace. 

" In the name of the Great Jehovah 
and the Continental Congress!" replied 
Allen. 

Thus an important fort, with one hun- 
dred and twenty cannon and vast quan- 
tities of military stores, was captured in 
ten minutes by a few undisciplined pro- 
vincials. 

14 June, 1777. 

BDoptlon of tbc American jflaa, 

I HE first form of the American flag 
^ was designed by Abram Markoe, 
captain of the light-horse troop of 
Philadelphia. 

It was the first that bore the thirteen 
stripes symbolizing the thirteen col- 
onies.^ 

Samuel Chester Reid, of New York, 
was the designer of the present form of 
the flag, and the first to propose adding 
a new star to the field of the flag when- 



The Days We Celebrate. 7 

ever a new State was admitted to the 
Union. 

In adopting the flag, Congress re- 
solved that the proportions of the flag 
for army use should be six feet six 
inches in length, and four feet four 
inches in width. 

' ' Forever float that standard sheet ! 

Where breathes the foe but falls before us, 
With Freedom's soil beneath our feet, 

And Freedom's banner streaming o'er us ? " 
— Joseph Rodi7ian Drake. 

' ' The star-spangled banner, oh, long may it 

wave 

O'er the land of the free and the home of the 

brave ! " 

— Francis Scott Key. 

17 June, 1775. 

JSattle ot :ffiunt^::*^tlL_^ 

IT had been rumored for weeks that 
the British, powerfully reinforced 
under Howe, Clinton and Burgoyne, 
were to move out of Boston to burn and 
pillage the country. 

Secretly the patriots fortified Bunker 
Hill the night before the battle, silently 
and under cover of the darkness, so 



8 The Days We Celebrate. 

close to the enemy's ships in the harbor 
that they could plainly hear the ships* 
sentries call "All is well! " 

Though the patriots were obliged to 
retreat owing to lack of amunition, the 
British loss was more than double that 
of the Americans, and it was called a 
glorious defeat for the cause of liberty 
for the patriotism it everywhere kindled 
in the hearts of the people. 

28 June, 1776. 

3fort iilboultric. 

NO braver defence was ever made by 
the patriots during the war of the 
revolution than that at Fort Moultrie, 
where the gallant Colonel Moultrie, with 
four hundred raw militiamen, held the 
fort against a large fleet of British ships 
which bombarded the fort for eight 
hours. 

After a heavy loss the British were 
glad to retreat, and as soon as they 
could repair their damaged ships sailed 
away for New York. 



The Days We Celebrate. 9 

4 July, 1776. 

Declaration of "ffn^epenOcnce. 

J HE news that King George was to 
^ send hired Hessians to conquer 
the colonies aroused the patriots to 
frenzy. A resolution declaring inde- 
pendence of British rule was introduced 
into Congress by Richard Henry Lee, 
and called forth a spirited discussion, 
many members still hoping for an ami- 
cable settlement. 

In the steeple of the State House the 
old bell man had stood all day waiting 
for the summons to ring out the glad 
sound of freedom to the city and the 
world. At two in the afternoon a mes- 
senger shouted up to him, " Ring! ring!" 
And ring he did ; and at the sound 
men grasped each others hands, women 
wept with excitement, the glad cry was 
taken up and passed along the street ; 
all felt that the die was cast, there was 
no retreat. It was liberty or death. 



lo The Days We Celebrate. 

1 6 August, 1777. 

^Battle ot ^Bennington. 

I HE British, under General Burgoyne, 

^ were marching toward Albany and 

dispatched a detachment to seize the 

military stores held by the patriots at 

Bennington, Vermont. 

The New Hampshire militia, led by 
Colonel John Stark and reinforced by 
the gallant Colonel Warner, utterly 
routed the British, and achieved one of 
the signal victories of the Revolution. 

7 October, 1780. 

JSattle of 1Ring'5 /IRountain. 

(OLONEL Ferguson, with a force of 
-— eleven hundred regulars and tories, 
had been sent into the country west of 
the Catawba to overawe the patriots 
and encourage the tories to take up 
arms. 

On the heights of King's Mountain, 
where they were encamped, they were 
surprised by a thousand patriot riflemen 
led by Colonel Campbell. A fierce con- 
flict raged for an hour and a half, at the 



The Days We Celebrate. ii 

end of which, after a heavy loss, eight 
hundred men threw down their arms 
and surrendered to the patriots. It was 
a complete victory. 

17 October, 1777. 

SurcenDcr ot :©ui:goi2ne. 
IaJhEN Burgoyne, the British com- 
^ mander, was thoroughly outgen- 
eraled by the patriot forces near Sara- 
toga, he was obliged to sue for terms of 
capitulation. By this victory about six 
thousand prisoners of war, a splendid 
train of brass artillery, and a vast quan- 
tity of military stores, came into pos- 
session of the patriot army commanded 
by Generals Gates and Lincoln. It was 
one of the notable victories of the Rev- 
olution. 

19 October, 1774. 

^be Bnnapolis tlea*ipart^, 

TpFTER the destruction of the tea in 
' V^ Boston, Great Britan still per- 
sisted in its shipment to southern ports. 
At Charleston the people resisted, and 



12 The Davs We Celebrate. 



when it was landed forbade its sale. 
When on the date above given the owner 
of the Peggy Stuart anchored in Annap- 
olis bay with a cargo of tea, he little 
dreamed of what was to follow. The 
Whig club of Annapolis, under their 
daring leader. Dr. Charles Alexander 
Warfield, braving all consequences, 
went undisguised to the harbor and 
compelled the owner of the vessel to set 
fire to it, and stood on guard until ship 
and cargo were consumed, and then 
withdrew without disorder or further 
demonstration. 

Great Britain shipped no more tea to 
Maryland, and public opinion enthusi- 
astically upheld the destruction of the 
tea. No punishment was inflicted upon 
the perpetrators. 

19 October, 1781. 

SurtenDer oX Xord Cornwallis. 

jORD Cornwallis, the British com- 
L^ mander, had encamped near York- 
town. La Fayette quickly advanced 
into the peninsula, and went into camp 



The Days We Celebrate. 13 

but eight miles distant, from which point 
he sent urgent messages to Washington 
in his camp on the Hudson to come to 
Virginia and aid in striking the enemy 
a crushing blow. 

While General Clinton, the British 
commandant at New York, deceived by 
false dispatches, was preparing for an 
assault by the patriots, Washington with 
his whole army was marching to Vir- 
ginia, and a powerful fleet of French 
ships, commanded by Count de Grasse, 
twenty-eight ships in all, anchored in 
the mouth of York river. Cornwallis 
with his army was completely blockaded 
by land and sea, and on the seventeenth 
proposed terms of capitulation by which 
eight thousand or more soldiers and sail- 
ors, Hessians and English, became pris- 
oners of war. This was the final battle 
of the Revolution. 

2,^ November, 1783. 

:i£vacuatiou ot IRew l^orf?. 

IN September of the above year a 
treaty of peace was signed be- 
tween Holland, Spain, England, France, 



14 The Days We Celebrate. 

and the United States, and on the twen- 
ty-fifth of November, everything being 
in readiness, the British army embarked, 
and soon the Briton had made an igno- 
minious departure. The United States 
of America took her place as one of the 
nations of the earth, 

i6 December, 1773. 

Xlbe JSoston trea*parti2» 

Tl'MONG the causes that led to the 
• V^ Revolution was the excessive taxes 
levied on the colonies by an exorbi- 
tant duty to be paid on all imported 
articles, which was afterwards repealed 
except that on tea. The people pledged 
themselves to use no tea until that also 
was taken off. But English ships 
loaded with tea were sent to America. 
Then New York and Philadelphia closed 
their ports and forbade the ships to en- 
ter. At Boston fifty men, disguised as 
Indians, boarded some ships laden with 
tea, broke open over three hundred 
chests and poured the contents into the 
sea. This was called the Boston Tea- 
party. 



The Days We Celebrate. 15 

26 December, 1776. 

JSattlc of Trenton. 

TyT the close of the year the British 
• V^ believed they had entirely con- 
quered the patriots, and that the war 
was ended. 

Lord Cornwallis obtained leave of 
absence and prepared to return to Eng- 
land. Washington resolved to attack 
the encamped Hessians at Trenton, and 
selected Christmas as the time, for he 
knew that the Hessians would spend the 
day in drinking and carousing. 

The Delaware river was filled with 
floating ice, and the crossing was so 
difficult that it was not effected until 
three o'clock in the morning after Christ- 
mas. The attack was a complete sur- 
prise to the enemy, who threw down 
their arms and begged for quarter. Be- 
fore night Washington had- the whole 
body of captives safe on the other side 
of the Delaware. 



FAVORABLE COMMENT, 



Mrs, Julia M. Dunn, Moline, Illinois. 

Dear Mrs. Dunn : "I have read with very 
great interest your brief synopsis of ' The Days 
We Celebrate.' It more than meets with my 
hearty approval, and indeed I have felt for a long 
time that our Chapters needed, very greatly, just 
such a book." 

LETITIA G. STEVENSON, 

Former President-General. 

Mrs. Julia M. Dunn. 

Dear Madam : "I heartily agree with Mrs. 
Stevenson that our Chapters need just such a book 
as ' The Days We Celebrate. ' " 

MARY PARKE FOSTER, 

President-General Daughters of the 

American Revolution. 

My Dear Mrs. Dunn : 

' ' Your little book of dates and epochs, ' The 
'Days We Celebrate, ' will be invaluable for Chap- 
ter use. The advance pages sent me are excel- 
lent, showing careful and accurate study of the 
subjects treated." 

ANNIE W. L. KERFOOT, 
State Regent Illinois Daughters American 
Revolution. 

)ear Mrs. Dunn : 
' ' ' The Days We Celebrate ' will be a boon to 
every Daughter of the American Revolution." 
MARY L. DEERE, 
Regent of Rock Island County, Illinois, 
D. A. R. 



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